Strong America Now: Waste Reduction is Becoming a Major Issue in 2012 Race

DES MOINES, Iowa, Oct. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Waste reduction took a major step toward becoming a major issue in the 2012 presidential race today when Newt Gingrich included the implementation of waste reduction business processes as a top priority in his "21st Century Contract to America."

His announcement comes after a week of news focused on government waste. From the Justice Department's $16 muffins to a Gallup Poll showing most Americans believe half of government spending is waste, it is clear that waste reduction is becoming an important issue for voters.

Mr. Gingrich's announcement was made in Iowa where the nonprofit organization, Strong America Now, has been working at the grassroots level for nearly a year educating politicians, candidates and Iowans about waste reduction and the contribution it could make to eliminate the deficit. In that year, the group has collected over 23,000 Iowan pledge signatures and eight presidential pledge signatures, including Mr. Gingrich's.

At the Iowa Straw Poll Gingrich said, "This is the biggest idea for rethinking how you run government since the simple service idea of the 1880s, so this is the biggest idea in 130 years. What if we just took Mike George's number 500 billion a year. That would be five trillion over ten years."

"We appreciate Mr. Gingrich's inclusion of waste reduction in his plan," said Peter O'Rourke, Strong America Now's executive director. "We believe support for waste reduction will continue to grow as candidates and Americans learn more about these proven waste reduction methods and the savings that can result from implementing them in government.

Strong America Now has collected almost half of the 50,000 signatures it plans to collect by the Iowa Caucus. To date, several presidential candidates, including Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, and Gary Johnson have signed a pledge to implement Lean Six Sigma.